In the spring of 2010, Chris Colby of Spire Architects & Design in Millbrook, N.Y. will break ground on a traditional Cape-style home. It’s made of concrete, and it’s net-zero energy. “Our earlier net-zero designs were more contemporary,” he said. “But people here said they didn’t...

Jacob Marks is a history major turned furniture maker. He sees similarities between the two fields that are less than obvious to most people. “Both require skill, discipline and attention to detail,” he said. “But the design of furniture comes more easily to me than the writing of history.”...

For the past six years, Judith Shatin, professor of music at The University of Virginia, has enjoyed an office in the Stanford White-designed Old Cabell Hall on the Lawn. She has an inspiring view of Jefferson’s Rotunda.. “I happened to be sitting in Old Cabell, looking at that beautiful scene, when...

The assignment was hectic, interior designer James Saavedra said, but the solution was magical. Cisco Pinedo, president of CiscoHome, called him up a couple of years ago and asked him to come to his home, style it, develop a few custom pieces, and make it right for a Los Angeles Times photo shoot. ...

Nathan Wieler has rethought the links between ideas and the resources that make them real. He’s no stranger to cutting-edge concepts for 21st century living. In 1999, he developed Zoom Culture, a precursor to YouTube. In 2005, when he built the Original Dwell Home in Chatham County, N.C., The Washington...

Michael Bustin, president of Meld USA, is entranced by a flexible, ecologically sensitive and design-driven solution for all kinds of interiors. “It’s an alluring, addictive material,” Bustin said of the cement-based eco composites and products he makes. “I can create anything – from warm...